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When I was a kid my father Poppee used to take me fishing. The only problem was that neither of us knew how to fish. I was the one that had the urge to spend all of my free time fishing and when you are five years old, you have a lot of free time! All I needed was a pole, some bobbers, hooks, worms and some water. We spent a lot of time fishing and not catching fish until we met up with a fellow janitor, neighbor and my honorary Grandpa, Mike Dozer. Mike had a house on Pistakee Lake in Northern Illinois, a little 14' Sears boat with a Ted Williams 9.9 outboard and all the tackle and know-how w …

When I was a kid we didn't have much. It was a big deal to go for a drive out in the country and go apple picking. My mom was so happy. "Just look at the beautiful Fall colors", she would say. Once at the apple orchard, we'd take the tractor ride out to the fields. "It's so beautiful here, just smell that fresh air, look at the trees, where's my camera...those were happy times. While she was excited about nature, my father Poppee and I were excited about one thing...apples! Me and Poppee just love apples The plan was to eat as many apples as we could humanly stuff into our mouths, as fast as …

A lot of fishermen will identify themselves by the species of fish they target, this is especially true in the open water season. There are bass fishermen, walleye fishermen, crappie fishermen muskie fishermen, and even cat fishermen! While ice fishermen usually aren't as species-specific, we do tend to get pigeonholed into fishing a specific species until the bite wears out and then we're lost. By becoming a better multi-species ice angler you can avoid the "dead bite" and the doldrums of winter! The benefits of multi-species fishing I've had many a trip where the walleye bite …